My Take on Chinua Achebe's "There was a country"

Mr. Chinua Achebe is no doubt a respected laureate of literature but that does not mean every educated person should play to his tunes when it comes to opinions.

I am not a historian and I was born in the eighties... way after the Nigerian civil war and I do not know much about the causes and reasons many lives went with the war as it will with any other war.

Anyhow, we must ask how Mr. Achebe's recent publication and controversial account of the civil war will affect positively the progress of Nigeria.

It is a fact that Mr. Achebe has not lived in Nigeria for years and has been a critique of the nation from afar. How can someone who doesn't know the "raw state" of the "common Nigerian" and who hasn't endured the pains of Nigeria's suffering dare to create a tribal war with his literature/book in a country already suffering from inter-tribal conflicts?

Everyone knows that the Yoruba people see Awolowo as a hero.. How dare he try to create a villain out of him? Implying he was responsible for the death of two million Igbo people.. 

How does his "expose" positively tend to help in the development of a Nigeria that we desperately pray for? Or is he in for the quick buck and cheap popularity that his caption seems to develop?

There was a country... But there still is a country. A Nigeria I believe in! 

Still struggling ... But a Nigeria where everything will work someday..

My advice to Chinua.. You may be living in the past gory tales et all.. But I live in the present Nigeria where my friends cut accross cultures and tribes. Trying to re-enact a past gory tale of Nigeria for popularity or commercial purpose is a big thumbs down.. Whether true or untrue.. His accounts in this book are not the needful... At least not at this point in Nigeria's development stage.

Instead of criticizing from afar...try to at least contribute your quota to Nigeria's development.... And that's my take.